They wound up with a small fleet of mismatched fighters and a decent start to rebuilding their armory. That first night they had gotten the command center up and running while also moisture protecting all of the tech. Just before they were sent off to sleep Kat passed out small cups and then passed around the bottle of Corellian whiskey. Once she got the bottle back, she held up her glass. "Tonight we would not be standing here without the brave sacrifices of so many. They will never be forgotten and their spirit will help keep pushing us forward. We may be licking our wounds now but with the start of a new day we will bring hope back to the galaxy and wipe out the First Order. So please join me in raising your glass to honor those of our friends who are no longer with us and to celebrate those of our friends who are still here."
They all raised their glasses and when everyone drank, Kat poured hers out for Han before pouring herself another and drinking it. Leia wrapped an arm around her daughter and pressed a kiss to her cheek. "That was perfect."
"Thank you." She easily returned the kiss before going to help with collecting the cups so they could be cleaned.
In the weeks that followed everyone worked on fixing up the fighters that were worth saving, clearing the airfield so they could land without worrying about vegetation, and setting up various rooms within the cave. As Poe had suggested, Finn had tried to speak with Kat but if she wasn't in the middle of helping fix a fighter, she was stuck in meetings with the other commanding officers. What felt like the hundredth time he tried to speak with her, Kat gave him an apologetic smile. "I swear I'm not trying to avoid you, Finn. I'm just currently balancing a few too many plates."
He understood, of course, he did. They were working on rebuilding so they could take out the First Order. She needed to be focused on that instead of someone who was trying to get to know her better since two of the three people in his life thought highly of her. And he needed to focus on how to listen to the force, be one with it as Rey said.
The first thing the remaining commanding officers did was to give Poe his commander title back. He was grateful but now that meant he was brought into their meetings. He tried to think of the positive that he got to spend more time with Kat since the only time he got to see her lately seemed to be when they were working together on fixing up a fighter. Once he tried to voice his concern about her running on fumes but she waved him off and promised she got plenty of rest.
He found her two days later asleep slumped over her desk in the office she claimed inside the Tantive IV. He carried her to her room and asked Connix to make sure she stayed there until dinner, at least, which turned out to not be a problem.
Rose spotted her first as she made her way into the galley. She kept watching Kat as she grabbed a sandwich and some tea before looking for a place to sit. To grab the attention of her friend, she waved her arm up in the air making the group around the mechanic turn towards the colonel.
Rey moved down a seat and Poe followed suit so that the seat at the end and across from Rose was empty. "Hey, Kat." Rose smiled as Kat sat down while also trying to figure out if she needed to get Finn and Rey to leave with her so the two commanding officers could talk privately. Kat, however, didn't look anything but rested.
The group had joined in with a chorus of greetings and Kat returned each one before her eyes landed on Poe. Her friendly smile turned into one of gratitude. She didn't linger long, or at least she didn't think so until she saw Rose's smile. "So what did I miss?" She asked, wanting to get some sort of conversation started before a topic she didn't want to discuss was brought up.
"All fighters are now in working order. The airfield is officially cleared and the Jedi training course is cleaned up so Rey starts tomorrow and Finn will start when Rey thinks he's ready." Rose answered.
Kat looked down at the newest member of their group and smiled. "Well, you're certainly learning from the best. Don't let her be too hard on you. She's just wanting you to be your best."
"Thanks but if I survived Luke's teaching, I think I can handle Leia," Rey said, a small smirk on her face.
"Fair point." Kat chuckled before turning to Finn. "Same goes for you."
Finn chuckled. "I just gotta hone in on the feelings. Now that everything's set up I should be able to focus on my training."
Kat nodded. "Good. You were able to hold your own against Kylo Ren there for a while without any training so I'm sure you'll be even better afterwards."
"And that also means we can now settle and focus on getting resources and intel on what the First Order is up to," Poe said, giving a pointed look to Kat.
"Okay, okay. I promise not to overdo it anymore. There was just too much to be done at the start." She held her hands up in surrender briefly.
Rose smiled, placing her hand on her friend's. "Good 'cause we got worried when Poe told us how he found you."
Kat turned her hand over and gave Rose's a squeeze. "Only small, covert missions are happening now so we can personally reach out to some of our allies. I swear I'll get back to how I was on D'Qar."
"The first one is soon, isn't it?" Finn asked, causing both commanding officers to nod their heads.
"Leia should be announcing who's going tomorrow," Poe answered.
"Well, if it's not you two, I'll be shocked," Rose said, motioning towards Kat and Poe.
Kat shook her head. "Not me. I'm still waiting to hear back from my contacts. The assignments will be based on who's contact it is. It'll also more likely be solo missions since they're supposed to be more low profile."
The group nodded before they went back to eating. They ate in silence for a bit, still trying to figure out the dynamic between them when Poe spoke up and started telling a story which then launched others to share stories, and soon the group was laughing and getting to know each other a little better. Even Kat shared some of her more wilder stories from her days on Naboo.
She hadn't even noticed that she had started eating off of Poe's tray or the fact that he slid it more between them until Rose gave her a look while glancing towards the tray. She had begun to steal the berries that were on his tray and when it had been pointed out, she stopped, a blush covering her cheeks.
While she was laughing at a story Finn was telling, she felt something bump into her elbow. She glanced down and saw the tray, so she looked towards Poe who just bumped her elbow once again. Kat cautiously reached out to take another berry and seeing the small smile on his face, she knew that it was all right.
After she finished her tea, Kat stood which caused all eyes to look towards her. "I should probably do rounds before going back to bed. See you all for breakfast?"
"Go back to bed, Kat. I'll take care of rounds. I'll report anything to you if I find anything." Poe said in a tone that he hoped she wouldn't argue against. He was honestly surprised she hadn't given him a 'you don't need to take care of me' speech.
She let out a sigh before turning to Finn. "Walk me to my room, Finn? I know you've been trying to speak with me about something for a while so I apparently have time now if you do."
Finn nodded, gathering his trash as he stood. "Night, guys."
When they made it out in the hall, Finn grew nervous. He had plenty of time to prepare and now it seemed like no words wanted to come out. Kat seemed to notice this and while she wasn't exactly the queen of opening up, she was the queen of getting to the point. "I'm assuming this is about Rose?"
He looked towards her, a grateful expression crossing his features. "Yeah, well, and Poe."
She raised an eyebrow. "What about Rose and Poe?"
"They're two of the three people I'm close to and well, you're pretty important to them so I thought I'd try to get to know you better, offer up any help you may need? Honestly, I hadn't thought this through too well."
Kat chuckled. "Well, from what I've seen from you so far I think you're better off under D'Acy's command unless you've magically received flight training. You could even help her and the ground forces better understand anything you may have on the First Order's military tactics that we don't already know. You may even rank one day."
Finn smiled, appreciative of what she thought of him from the soldier standpoint. "I'll see if I can't speak with her then."
"What are your intentions with Rose?" She asked as they got to her door.
Looking down at his feet, he grew even more nervous than when he first tried to figure out what to even say.
"Because if you're going to lead her on, you and I may actually have a problem." She told him, growing fiercely protective. "And truth be told, I'd rather not have a problem with you."
"If I am, I don't mean to. I know people talk because of how close I am with Rey, especially now that she's teaching me about the force, but she was the first person that saw me as just that, a person. And I think I was the same for her but honestly we see each other more like siblings."
Kat nodded, she understood how attached at the hip one could be when there's another person that is on the same wavelength. She thought she had that with Ben at one time but it seemed their time apart had destroyed it. "Then I think you should talk to her and explain that. I think you might be pleasantly surprised." She gave a small smile.
"Then may I offer some similar advice to you?"
Rolling her eyes, she let out a small sigh. "That's it you two are officially made for each other, especially if this has anything to do with Poe."
He just gave her his cheekiest grin before giving her a nonchalant shrug. "I'm just saying he was really worried about you and he even shared his food with you. It just seems like Rose and I aren't the only ones who need to talk."
"Goodnight, Finn." She dismissed him, turning to enter her room, her door closing cutting off the sound of his laughter.
It was two weeks later when they received the first sound of Emperor Palpatine's signal, warning that the day where he sought his revenge would happen soon. They didn't scramble exactly but the commanding officers immediately called an emergency meeting.
"This has to be a hoax. The First Order is planning something else and they sent this out to throw us off their trail." Kat said, refusing to believe that Palpatine was alive.
"We've not received anything else that would imply such," D'Acy said.
"Then we'll just have to go look for it. Has there been any chatter to suggest what the First Order has been up to?" Kat asked.
Poe shook his head. "The only thing I've heard is that they've given up looking for us right now cause Ren wants to make sure no one goes against him being the new Supreme Leader."
Leia and Kat shared a glance before focusing back on the group. "We need to trace to see where that signal came from. Until then or if it leads nowhere we may need to deploy our best spies to gather intel and two of them are sitting right here." Leia said, looking to Kat and Poe.
"I can reach out to Ruby either way. Has anyone spoken with Maz?" Kat said.
"I'll reach out to her," Poe said.
"D'Acy are there any others that you can reach out to or members of your army that are showing promise that Metonae and Dameron could borrow as they plan their outreach?" Leia asked.
The commander of the grounds team nodded. "I believe they're both familiar with Finn and I have a few others in mind."
"Then that's where we'll begin." Leia nodded, dismissing the group.
"How's Rey coming along?" Kat asked once the others left.
Leia shook her head. "She's expressed she wants to focus on her training."
Sighing, Kat stood from the table. "Then you won't mind if I talk to her?"
"Kat, these next missions are reconnaissance only. If she's needed then she may join if she chooses to."
"Okay, great. I'm going to go find her then." She smiled at Leia before leaving the room to make her way to where Rey had sectioned off a part of the cave for all of her things, ignoring Leia calling her name in a warning.
Luckily Rey was in the cave, reading over one of the Jedi texts. Kat would prefer if Rey felt comfortable joining in on the missions but she would respect the other woman's wishes. It didn't mean she couldn't still help. Kat knew of Palpatine, knew what he was capable of from the stories she had heard from the previous war. She wanted a new take because a fresh set of eyes on the details could mean new insights. She would take all information Rey may have uncovered to help inform the future missions.
"Hey, I'm not interrupting anything, am I?" Kat asked, leaning over the small rock wall that separated the small cove from the rest of the cave.
Rey looked up from the texts she was reading and shook her head. "Not at all. Join me?" She asked, motioning towards the space in front of her.
The colonel smiled and sat down in front of Rey, folding her legs underneath her. "Have you learned how to make fireworks with the dirt yet?" Kat asked, not knowing the technical term or if there was even one for the trick Ben used to do to cheer her up.
"No, I don't think I have. Maybe describe it for me?"
Looking down at her lap, Kat took a deep breath to calm her emotions. "It was something Ben would do to cheer me up sometimes when our old tooka dolls weren't around to make them dance. There was one time he did it with some leftover confetti and glitter from a party. It was honestly one of the prettiest things I'd ever seen at the time. He'd take a small handful of dirt and would toss it into the air before controlling how it would fall back to the ground. He'd do it mostly to keep me from getting too angry so I wouldn't do anything reckless like running away or making some plan on how to smuggle him back home from Luke's Jedi temple." She let out a harsh laugh. "He sounds like a completely different person, doesn't he?"
Rey reached out and placed a hand on Kat's leg. "We, um, have this connection in the force and I saw him turn back to the light but he also has so much anger in him, I don't know if it's possible anymore."
"As far as I'm concerned, my brother died the second he killed our father." Kat then sighed, looking up at Rey. "Thank you for trying, though. Leia told me that you tried to get him to come back home."
"Of course. This isn't why you're here though, is it?"
Kat shook her head. "No. I don't know how much you've heard about the latest developments but the leader of the Siths has apparently come back from the dead so I was wondering if you had come across anything in those texts you've been studying or Uncle Luke's notes about the Sith or about Emperor Palpatine that could potentially help those who are about to go on reconnaissance ops."
"Nothing's coming to mind right away but I'll come find you if I come across anything."
Nodding, Kat stood. "That's all I ask. I'll let you get back to what you were working on. Thanks, Rey."
Just because Palpatine had returned from the dead, didn't mean their original goal of getting more resources stopped. Kat was flying solo, heading back to Chandrila to meet up with an old friend from her time as Leia's Chief of Staff. Darby and a few others were working on getting the senate back together or at least creating a network that would be willing to help the Resistance.
The plan was that they were going to meet at one of their old hiding places within the capitol building, exchange funds, and then Kat would be on her way back to Ajan Kloss. She and Leia had debated on which ship she would take and ultimately they landed on an A-Wing to be on the safe side in case she would run into any trouble.
"Oh, so just because you're a colonel makes you think you don't have to do a run down?" Poe said just as she was about to climb up into the cockpit.
Kat set her foot back on the ground and turned to face him. "That's exactly what I think." She smirked towards him.
He shook his head. "Nope, let's hear it. What are you gonna do?"
"I'm going to go back home, meet an old friend, and then come back with some more funds."
"Very good." He held out a commlink, which she took with a smile. "If you run into any sort of trouble, I'll be there as fast as I can."
She wrapped her arms around him and held him tight. The moment her arms wrapped around his shoulders, his wound around her waist, holding her to him. "You won't even know I'm gone."
Chuckling, he just pulled her in closer. "I'll always know when you're gone." He muttered.
For once Kat didn't ruin the moment with a snarky comment that hid her true feelings. Instead, she brought a hand up to caress his cheek. They stayed like that for a few moments, not saying the words that needed to be said between them. Poe froze briefly when he noticed Kat moving forward. He selfishly didn't want their first kiss to be a goodbye but then she moved her head to the side and placed a lingering kiss on his other cheek before pulling away. Well, he didn't exactly want that either but he'd take it.
After she went through all of the pre-flight protocols, she looked around for him and gave him a small wave before pushing the fighter down the runway so she could take off. She really had almost done it. She had almost given in and kissed Poe Dameron. All he had done was just what she did to him countless times before he left for a mission. But truly he had done so much more than that. They really had gone past the days where she was positive that he would have rejoiced in her not being on base. Now he had been worried about her leaving.
Okay, so maybe Rose and Finn were right, they needed to talk. It had seemingly worked wonders for them and Kat honestly couldn't be happier for the both of them. She hated to admit it but Leia was right what seemed like a lifetime ago. She had started opening up more and her lone friendship with Rose had added three others. Not to mention the remainder of her pilots felt comfortable enough approaching her with ideas and having small chats that didn't revolve around needed parts or mission debriefs.
When she came out of lightspeed in front of Chandrila, she didn't feel the overwhelming sense of coming home. Sure she felt a strong sense of nostalgia, wishing she was coming back under different circumstances. Then again she felt the same emotions that stirred up when she returned to Coruscant. She was returning to a planet she once called home before tarnished memories made her hurt too much when she thought about her life on the planet.
She descended into the lot that was reserved for visiting diplomats. Hiding her A-Wing among the larger diplomatic ships, Kat hopped out and made her way to the capitol building. She snuck in through the side, following behind a deliveryman, and made her way to a stairwell off the main hall, tucked away by the electrical room. She checked behind her just in case even though no one had recognized her or even paid attention to her.
That was when she noticed a shock of black hair, a black robe, and two people flanking him also dressed in all black. Shit. Her brother was here.
Kat ducked into the stairwell, making sure the door closed as quietly as possible before hurrying down the stairs to the basement. There was an old file room that hadn't been turned into anything else, holding all the papers from eons ago despite everything being digital now. "Why didn't you call to tell me my brother was here?" She asked as soon as she found Darby in their typical spot.
Darby came to just below Kat's collar bone. Her hair was styled in a pompadour and was currently dyed a light blue going on silver. They had met when Darby did her first internship at the capitol and had quickly become the best of friends. "Because I didn't have time. He came to me first, well maybe he went to Leia's office first and you know that's where I'm working now. I was just glad I was able to get out in enough time to meet you. He's placed a guard outside the office."
Placing her hands on Darby's arms. The fear was evident in her eyes as she pleaded with her best friend. "Come back with me. Please, Darbs, if he finds out we've been in contact he could kill you."
Shaking her head, she placed one hand on Kat's arm and the other held out the envelope that had all the funding she could currently put together. "I'm needed here, Kat. They're counting on me and I don't quite trust everyone else to stay true, especially after today. To better help you, it's best if I stay here."
"You know sometimes I really hate that we think so similarly," Kat said as she took the envelope. Darby's plan was exactly what Kat would have done if the roles had been reversed.
"Good news, there's a better exit down here now." The original exit was at the very end of the hall in the opposite direction of where the file room was. She would have had to go past all of the various offices tucked away down in the basement to get out.
Darby showed her and sure enough two doors down was a new exit sign. Kat turned back to look at her friend before pulling her in for a hug. "Please be safe."
"Always. Now get going before he senses you or something." She nudged Kat away.
She placed the envelope into a pocket on the inside of her jacket before she ran for the door. Easing it open just as she heard Darby ascend the stairs, Kat did her best to close it right after. Instead, she was swung out with the door as Kylo Ren used the force to keep her from closing it.
"You're a brunette now." He said, tone light and nonchalant as if the reason they had been separated wasn't a war.
Kat slowly let go of the door handle and turned to face him. "And you're a murderer now." She copied his tone, noticing that he didn't have the two bodyguards with him. He was either extremely cocky or incredibly stupid.
"I did what I had to do."
"Oh, so you just had to kill dad."
"He's dad now?" He asked, not keeping the shock hidden.
"He has been for a long time. I was just too late to realize it." She wasn't entirely sure why she was honest with him but he was still her brother and it seemed she couldn't shut him out as she so desperately wanted to do.
"He was never around. They were never around. How could you even think that?" His anger was beginning to simmer under the surface, covering up the guilt that ate him up, especially now looking at his sister.
"The same way I can still call you my brother." She took a step forward, the door swinging back to close. "Ben, you can stop this. You can atone for what you've done and you can come back."
At this point, they both had tears in their eyes. "I can't come back from this."
"Yes, you can. I know you can. Come back with me and we'll figure it all out." She held out her hand, hoping he'd take it.
He stared at it for what felt like forever before he shook his head and took a step back. He had broken so many of his promises to her, added his name to the list of people who had left her, and yet here she was trying to bring him back. He was no longer the boy who was just happy to finally have someone else be there for him when his parents weren't. He was no longer the boy who wanted nothing more than for him and his sister to start their life anew so they could be really happy.
He remembered telling her that. It was before Snoke showed him the truth behind his uncle and the Jedi Order. She and Leia had come to visit and he was doing so well in his studies that he told her about his plan for them. He would be a great Jedi, even better than Luke, and she would be a great senator and they both would do so much better than their family. He only ever wanted the best for her. A part of him still did and maybe there could be a way for that plan to still work. Kat could be his political advisor and then maybe just maybe if Kat was on his side, he'd be able to convince Rey to finally join him.
"Ben…"
"Ben is dead!" He yelled, cutting her off. For the briefest of seconds, she saw a flash of guilt when he watched her step back at him raising his voice. She was tense, ready to fend off an attack and a part of him hated that he made her look at him like that. He didn't need to scare her if he was going to convince her to join him.
"Snoke is dead, you know. I've taken over as Supreme Leader and you could still join me. The Senate is gone. You could rebuild it however you wanted. Let the Resistance die. The galaxy is ours for the taking." It was his turn to hold out his hand for her to take.
Behind her, one of the Knights of Ren approached. She noticed his eyes flicker to the warrior and in an attempt to keep from getting kidnapped, she smacked his hand away and spun to face the masked warrior, batons gripped in her hand as she fended off their attack. She got in a few good hits of her own, grateful for the combat training she had been helping Rey with since this particular knight was using a staff.
The sound of Kylo Ren's unstable lightsaber igniting caused Kat to spin back around. There was no way she could fend herself off with this double attack. The saber would cut through her batons easily. But she didn't have much time to register any more than that before her world turned dark and she crumpled to the ground.